Saturday, June 27, 2009

When will they learn?

When oh when, sweet Jesus, will politicians learn that their power and influence is supposed to be for the good of the people, and not for the satisfaction of their lusts? Now comes Gov. Mark Sanford of South Carolina, following Senator John Ensign down the "follow your Willie" trail. It's starting to really get sad watching all these stalwart "family values" guys sink in the morass of their own hypocrisy. Of course they deserve it, but the disgrace they bring to my sex overrides any pleasure I could get from seeing right-wing Republicans crash and burn.

John Ensign not only had an affair, he had his mistress and her son on the party payroll. Surely there are criminal charges which should be applied here.

Mark Sanford wasn't home on Father's Day, he was in Argentina doing the horizontal tango with his girlfriend. I was all shocked that he wasn't home for his kids until I found out his wife kicked him out two weeks ago. So at least he has an excuse for not being there on Father's day, tho it is a really crappy excuse.

He doesn't have an excuse for adultery, and especially he doesn't have an excuse for abandoning his duties without putting anyone in charge, without letting anyone have a way to reach him if there was an emergency. And he tried to lie about it when he got home. If someone hadn't sent some emails which he'd written (he has a real romantic streak)to the newspaper, he'd have kept on lying. If I were a resident of South Carolina I'd be gathering signatures for impeachment, and maybe agitating for some kind of criminal charge for his dereliction of duty .

And you know, he didn't look so hot at that press conference. Granted it was a stressful time, but he rambled on in a way which suggest a different kind of mental turmoil beyond the shock of being found out, especially in light of his weird disappearance. He might want to spend some time taking a rest in a special "home."

It's gotta be hard for those moralistic right-wing Christians who tout vigorously their so-called "family values." I hope so. Ensign and Sanford have done more damage to the institution of marriage than a legion of gay and lesbian marrieds could ever do.

The wingnut Fox commentators are already trying damage control, pathetic as it is. Rush Limbaugh already said that Sanford's problems were Obama's fault. Apparently, according to ol' Rush, because Sanford was depressed at having federal stimulus money forced on him (Sanford only wanted a particular kind of South American"stimulus.") so that's why he acted so erratically. Oy vey. Is there no idiocy Limbaugh will not stoop to? Geez, I'm waiting and praying for the gov't. to force some stimulus funds on me. Please, Obama, make me take some money and depress me!

If I had some of that U.S.A. stimulus then maybe I, too, could afford some of the Argentinian kind.

Good night.

Friday, June 19, 2009

Revolution

I saw a very touching video segment on the Rachel Maddow Show. People in Iran yelling from one rooftop to another, at night, "Allah Akbar—"God is Great") to show their opposition to the phony Iranian election.

The video, I think a cell phone movie, of course was smuggled out via the internet, as the authorities have done everything they can to keep information from escaping, not only to the outside, but to other Iranians.
At last the internet is actually providing a significant service to human development—as opposed to being a vehicle for computer games, pron, illicit music downloads and my cat photos.

The old radical in me is really stirred by this example of resistance to the ruling class.

So what's the biggest problem in your life tonight, eh?

Oh, if we could have had something like this in this country in 2000, how different the world would be today.

In the meantime, the Obamarama is still waffling on the "Don't ask, don't tell" thing. Now, the GLBT spouses, or significant others, of federal employees are eligible for the same benefits as federal heterosexual significant others. An advancement in human evolution, but not the biggest one that could be taken.
Getting relocation allowances is not the same as having your marriage recognized as legitimate.

Where is the repeal of "Don't ask, don't tell" we were expecting? Why is the Obama Justice Department defending the so-called "marriage protection" law?
What is this "marriage protection"?

I was just at my daughter's marriage. She didn't need any protection for her marriage. The ability of gay people in massachusetts to marry didn't disuade her from taking the vows with her BOYfriend. I didn't see that she needed any "protection."

This whole foofaraw around marriage is just annoying and I wish I could ignore it. But people I love are involved. I have a good gay male friend, someone whose presence made working in a place I didn't really like bearable, and a wonderful lesbian minister and friend who has meant a lot to my life in the last few years.
I will defend their right to live their lives as they see fit without interference from obsessional, deluded people who feel that they have the only way to truth and to God.

I've said before, it's funny (as in "odd" not as in humorous) that the biggest concern of right-wing Christians is with sexual issues, while Jesus himself said so little about that, but boy, did he talk about the evils of riches. Ask your local evangelist if he (it most likely will be a "he") preaches more about sex or about riches and see what answer you get.

My reading of the New Testament suggests that Jesus was concerned about people's attachment to worldly things, and certainly an obsession with sex would fall into that category, but he saw that the biggest obstacle to humanity was it's attachment to worldly wealth.

As John Ensign, John Edwards and Elliot Spitzer can attest, sex is more likely to bring you down than illicit monetary gain, or political chicanery, at least in this country.
And the reason for that is that we, the collective "we" of the US of A, feel that you should be loyal to your spouse, and to your constituents (if you can't be good sexually how can you be good governmentally?)

Geez, so much hypocrisy and so little time to complain about it. I'm not getting any younger…



Jesus was a Socialist.
Get over it.

Tuesday, June 16, 2009

Twitter, the ever-ripe Republicans, Sotomayor and torture

Ah humanity. The variety and richness of your idiocy.
God, WHAT were you THINKING?—
when you created us. Are we your comic relief on those days of rest?
Are we a "beta" version?
Humanity 1.1?
I eagerly await version 2.0.
You got something more important going on in some other part of the universe?
Or what?

I'll have questions for Him, you betcha.

Anyway…

All kinds of upheaval going on in Iran. And the usual news organizations have been warned to keep their reporters away. So how are we going to find out what is going on there?
The answer, God help us, is Twitter!
Someone said "the revolution will come in 140 characters or less."
I wish it had been me.
As it turns out, all those internet activities which are so much fun to satirize and laugh at, YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, are providing a window into the activities in Iran. Real news is coming to the world thru these vehicles. Who'da thunk it?
When the State Department asks Twitter to delay scheduled maintenance so they can keep getting news from Iran, you know something is happening here, don't you Mr. jones?

This is my official apology for my disdain.
I still don't think I need a lot of "friends" on Facebook or to have people "following" me on Twitter. But I will admit to the utility of those services.
And cell phones with cameras. Isn't it amazing? One wonders how the American revolution would have gone with those vehicles available at that time?
Somebody who actually knows how to write could make a novel out of this. Philip K. Dick, where are you?

And Republicans, ever ripe for mockery, ever ready to look foolish. Where do these people come from? Where to start?
Sotomajor. Ohh, this Latina is really screwing with the Repubs minds. Is she mean? Dear God, we can't have a mean Supreme Court Justice. Lindsy Graham of South Carolina is really concerned about this. Oh, but we don't want someone who is too "empathetic." Can't have someone who is soft on criminals, but she shouldn't be mean, either.

She's been making the rounds at the Senate, meeting with Senators so they can see she doesn't have horns and a forked tail. Only thing, I see a photo of her meeting with Senator Michael Crapo (now there's a name to conjure with), R-Idaho.
And she's wearing pants.
Omigod, she's wearing pants in an Idaho Republican's office? Doesn't she know she should look like a "lady?" He may think she really is mean, wearing pants and all.

There's been so much FUD (fear, uncertainty and disinformation) coming from the Repubs about this—she's mean, she's empathetic, she'll have a "Latina" perspective on the law (like Scalia doesn't have a Catholic perspective? He is Catholic, after all).And she has so many decisions to analyze for those devilish details that the Republicans need more time to read them all.
Oh, and she belongs to a "females only" judicial group. Horrors. This is disturbing news to the "Skull and Bones" crowd.

And more torture mems and other documents have been released, without the redactions of previous releases. I love that word "redacted." So much nicer than "censored."
Anyway, it seems that Khalid Sheikh Muhammed had said (redacted in an earlier released version) that he made up stories under torture. He said he didn't know where Osama was, they tortured him a while, and he made up somewhere where Osama could be. Of course one has to ask if he was lying under torture or lying for this deposition, but it still knocks a hole in Mr. Darth Cheney's assertion that torture got us useful information. Ol' Khalid, by the gov'ts. own admission, was waterboarded 6 times a day for a month. I already said somewhere on this blog that I would have implicated everyone I know under that kind of treatment—probably by the second waterboarding of the first day. Sorry friends, relatives, minister—you'd all be toast.

Fear, uncertainty and doubt. Those who use these means of control inevitably fall victim to them.

Oy.
It's quarter past midnight. I'm going to bed.
Hopefully, I won't have Republican nightmares.

Friday, June 5, 2009

Where was I?

I've been on hiatus.
Actually, my older daughter got married, on the island of Vieques no less, and from the build-up to the event to the aftermath of the event, I have been in a cloud of anticipation, joy, and let-down at having to return to normal life.

It doesn't matter if one has come of age in the 60's when "free love" was where it was at, and it doesn't matter that one's daughter has been living with the groom for the last 9 years and "friends" with him for 14—when one walks said daughter down the aisle to the ceremony all the usual and wonderful feelings of something special happening come washing in and overwhelming one.
It was a joyous ceremony and I had a wonderful time on Vieques. It's hard to get back to the everyday ordinary gripe and angst one usually lives with. There were warm seas, sunny beaches, beautiful women (alas all too young for me) good food, great climate and dancing.
What's a curmudgeon to do?
I'm not used to being so happy.
Best vacation I ever had.

But then I come back and what do I find?
MORE IDIOCY!

Mostly Republican idiocy.
But, sadly, the Obamarama is also making a contribution to this category. I don't know what it is with him. So bold during his campaign, now he looks like Bush dark.
(OK, bad joke.)
I think Obama is going to be a great president, eventually, but he is really not looking all that good lately.

Guantamano? Still open, and geez, we can't have those terrorists in the US. Just ignore those guys who bombed the US embassy in Kenya, who were tried and convicted in the US and currently reside at taxpayer expense in one of our better prisons. Doesn't seem to be a problem so far.

But the Repubs don't want them in their neighborhood correctional institutions. Could be a danger.
And then there are those who are innocent, like the Uigurs. What to do? The Uigur community in the US wants them, but the Gov't. can't bring themselves to let innocent victims of the Bush Inquisition into the country. So it seems like we're giving money to the nation of Palau (where? who?) to take them. There any Uigurs in Palau?

Then we have "Don't ask, don't tell." 15 guys fluent in middle eastern languages are dumped from the service for open gayness. Brave and useful soldiers are kicked out of the service and what is the Obama doing about it? So far the defender of gay soldiers has been silent. And he's not overturned Bush secretiveness in spite of a pledge to do so. Actually being in charge is a little different from being on the outside and criticizing, isn't it?
"Uh, maybe we ought not to release those photos. they could be inflammatory …and… etc."
"Uh, maybe ought not to releaes those Uigurs in the US…and…we need to find prisons somewhere else to take the guilty guys." Etcetery, etcetery, etcetery.
C'mon Barack! Lead already!
Stop throwing money around and get down to business!

Then the Repubicans.
Actually I enjoyed bitching about Obama for a while. It was different. The Repubicans are getting boring. Same old, same old.
Mitch McConnell is still making a fool of himself publicly. Lately it's "the Dems are rushing the nomination of Sotomajor." Baloney. As Rachel Maddow pointed out, 45 days from nomination to Senate consideration is about average.
Doesn't stop the Republican obfuscation and obstruction. Still kowtowing to the Limburger. I mean, Limbaugh. Either way, smells.
Still opposing everything the Obama does. No matter how trivial.

And Cheney still going around the country fear mongering. And his daughter (the straight one, not the gay one) with him. He thinks he can talk his legacy into legitimacy.
I don't think it's going to work.

The Repubicans are so pathetic.
Bad cess to them.

I'm going to bed.